The present invention relates to the field of mail handling, and in particular to postage meters or xe2x80x9cfranking machinesxe2x80x9d for preparing mail fully, ready for posting.
The market currently offers no system in an office environment that is completely self-contained and that prepares mail items fully, ready for posting.
The Applicant""s European Patent Application EP 0 612 036 proposes a mail-handling system that folds documents delivered directly by a word-processing system and inserts them into envelopes. However, it is possible to send the resulting mail item only if the envelope bears the destination address and the right amount of postage, which means that, at the very least, a postage meter must be added to the system.
European Patent Application EP 0 265 192 discloses a mail-handling system associating the following around a central computer (system controller): firstly a laser printer followed by a folder/inserter for folding documents and inserting them into envelopes, and secondly an ink jet printer for printing the destination addresses on the envelopes. It should be noted that such a system does not print postage amounts on the resulting mail items. Furthermore, printing addresses directly on envelopes containing documents suffers from drawbacks (with respect to printing quality) due to the different thicknesses of the envelopes.
The problem of printing quality is solved in Patent Application EP 0 745 435 by printing the envelopes before the documents are inserted into them. The empty envelopes are printed by an ink jet printer, with the documents being printed independently by a laser printer. However, the system for preparing mail items described in that document remains complex, in particular with respect to the paths followed by the mail items, and it requires a number of components such that it cannot be used in practice in an office environment in which inevitably only a small amount of space is available.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system that is completely self-contained, that can be used very simply in a conventional office environment, and that is designed to perform all of the handling of a mail item from producing the individual document(s) making up the mail item to closing the item so that it can be sent, including folding the documents and inserting them into an envelope and printing all the necessary information on the envelope, in particular the destination address and the amount of the postage or xe2x80x9cpostage imprintxe2x80x9d.
This object is achieved by a system for preparing mail items, the system comprising a general-purpose computer for preparing a document to be sent, a secure metering device connected to the general-purpose computer via a secure link so as to send it postage metering or xe2x80x9cfrankingxe2x80x9d information, a printer connected to the general-purpose computer so as to print both the document to be sent, and at least a destination address for the document and a postage imprint on an envelope that is to receive the document, and a folder/inserter connected both to the printer and to the general-purpose computer so as to receive and fold the printed document and so as to insert it into the corresponding franked envelope.
Thus, with the structure of the invention, all of the functions required for preparing a mail item are performed with an ordinary conventional printer (and its associated computer) and a folder/inserter connected to the printer.
The printer comprises an envelope-feed magazine, a document-feed magazine, a print module connected either to the envelope-feed magazine or to the document-feed magazine so as to print successively the envelope and the documents, and a document outlet connected to the print module so as to deliver the envelopes and the documents to the folder/inserter, a control module also being provided for controlling printing of and synchronizing conveying of the envelopes and documents as a function of instructions received from the general-purpose computer.
Advantageously, the printer further comprises a document-receiving magazine connected to the print module so as to extract printed documents that are not to be sent.
Preferably, the print module comprises one of the following two elements: a laser print drum or an ink jet print head.
The folder/inserter comprises an accumulator module connected to a document inlet designed to co-operate with the document outlet of said printer so as store, when necessary, the various documents corresponding to a given envelope, a folding module connected either to the document inlet or to the accumulator module to fold the documents before they are inserted into the envelope, a turn-around module connected to the document inlet so as to receive and position the envelope so that the documents can be inserted therein, and an inserter module connected to the folding module and to the turn-around module so as to insert the documents into the corresponding envelope and so as to eject the resulting mail item to a document outlet, a control module also being provided for controlling and synchronizing the various modules as a function of instructions received from the general-purpose computer.
Advantageously, the folder/inserter further comprises an additional feed module for feeding in advertising leaflets.
In an advantageous embodiment, the printer may be constituted by a print module integrated in the folder/inserter.